Invented by: Hubert Booth

Information: The very first vacuum cleaner was invented by Hubert Cecil Booth (1871-1955). He was born in Gloucester, England. At the age of 18 he moved to London to study civil and mechanical engineering at a college there. While working as an engineer, he designed Ferris wheels and Royal Navy battleships.

Booth saw an American inventor showing of a new cleaning machine, which was intended to clean railway carriages. It consisted of a box with a bag on top, but the machine blew air into carpets in the hope of getting the dust to fly out, bounce off the box, and into the bag. Booth asked the inventor why he did not use suction instead of blowing. The inventor said that sucking dust was impossible, got angry and left, but Booth could not let go of his idea. A few days later, Booth decided to test his idea by placing a handkerchief over a cushioned chair in a posh London restaurant, and sucking on it hard. He of course started choking at the dust that he sucked in, but when he turned over the hanky, it was filthy from the dust that had been trapped in it.

Booth asked a friend, F. R. Simms, to design an engine that could do the sucking for his carpet cleaners. He then set up the British Vacuum Company in 1901 to make and use them. The cleaners were taken from house to house by horse drawn vans where hoses were put through people's windows, leaving the actual engines in the street. They worked very well and Booth was asked to clean the ceremonial carpet for King Edward VII's coronation.

Victorians Inventions Page